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Sunday, March 15, 2015

Making a Linda Danvers Supergirl costume - why Linda?

In case you aren't familiar this is her:

She is my blogspot avatar. She is not Kryptonian, she is an earth girl who was merged with the then Supergirl, also not Kryptonian. The series was written by Peter David with art by various people. The two images above are pencilled by Ed Benes. I reviewed the book these panels came from on New readers...start here! a few years ago.

I adore this costume. Always have done and have always wanted to make it, but was concerned about wearing a crop top. So this year I figured why not make it maternity style. In the final trade (Many Happy Returns) Linda does get pregnant, and she has a daughter, and then due to universe shenanigans loses her daughter in the process of saving the universe.

When I first read the story I never got it. I didn't understand Linda's emotions, I didn't understand the big deal and I knew that the finale was out of my grasp. I know now that is because I didn't have the experience or maturity to get it. Obviously I now do. When I re-read this run in full over last summer I got it, in full. It was a comfort to see Linda's raw grief laid out in front of me like that, and it is one of the strongest and most relatable portrayals I have seen. The creative team - Peter David, Ed Benes, Alex Lei (inks), Brad Anderson (colours) and Comicraft (letters) created something very personal and very affecting and I am very grateful to have it and to be able to read it.

Anyway, due to my love of Linda's costume, the fact that I think we have something in common, the fact that it seemed a do-able costume to pull together (and I sure as hell didn't want to wear my Aquaman one again - repeating last year in it's entirety does not feel right), I opted for bringing together this outfit for London Super Comic Con 2015. Here's what it looked like:

I am really pleased with it!
I bought the gloves, skirt and boots off ebay. I am also wearing a blue alice band but you can't really see it in the picture. The white t-shirt I already owned but I put the black bands on the sleeves and hem, and I made the shield. I had help with the sewing and I had to do the shield twice. I will explain in a later post about how I did the black bands and the shield, but for now I will admire my handiwork. I'm very proud.

The skirt is a maternity skirt - I'm amazed I could find a blue lycra one, let alone in the right shade of blue. Most maternity skirts are flowy and knee length, rather dowdy, I hate maternity clothes. Whereas this one was pretty darn perfect. I had to pull it up so the top of it sat next to my bra, but that worked out fine because the white t-shirt is rather see through otherwise.

The gloves are elbow length ones that are folded over to be wrist length. I should really have sewn them up so they were at the right length, but I didn't think of that until I was at the con. I may shorten them when I wear the costume again.